Interconnectedness of Intangible and Tangible Heritage in the Pilgrimage Town of Kumbakonam, South India

Kumbakonam on the banks of Kaveri has been a center of Hindu pilgrimage and is considered as the Dakshin Kashi, as its ritualist geography bears evidence of being translocated from Varanasi. Kumbakonam with multiple temples and tanks, shows a complex evolution since its Chola origins. The sacred center of the city is the Mahamaham tank, and is also the setting of the Mahamaham festival which occurs once every 12 years and is compared with the Kumbh Mela of north India. An important pilgrimage called panch-krosha yatra links five important Shiva temples within a radius of about 5 km of the Mahamaham Tank. A larger pilgrimage route of Navagraha to other associated nearby cities and temples, expands the religious influence of Kumbakonam even further. These pilgrimages were originally organized through local religious organizations, and directly benefited the local communities. Unfortunately, they are now being subsumed within contemporary mass tourism, which ignores the inbuilt ‘visitor dispersion’ and other sustainable approaches. The paper will examine how the myths and rituals determine the urban form of Kumbakonam and how this inherent linkage between the intangible and tangible has been the historic place-maker of the city and thus needs to be looked at in its historical context for its development as a sustainable and inclusive sacred city.